Best Batman movie yet.

Which is, realistically, damning it with faint praise, as the last three* blew. But this one was damned good in its own right.

But this one captured the feel of Batman, getting his motivations right (something Burton missed by a long shot), getting his interactions with the villains down, and throwing in tons of stuff for the comic geeks (some of whom will whine that the villains and supporting characters aren't the same as in the comics, but they miss the point as much as the folks who griped about Spidey's organic webshooters did). Just a solid superhero movie, one that focuses on what makes Bats unique. Katie Holmes does suck some life out of the movie in her early scenes, but even she manages to find her footing by the latter half of the film. And since the rest of the cast includes people like Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, and (of course) Christian Bale, well, we've all seen what Nolan can do with genuinely talented actors. No hamming it up -- not even by Cillian Murphy as Scarecrow -- which is a major plus.

There are a few minor plot complaints (which I'll avoid for spoiler purposes), but nothing that prevented me from having a good time. My only other minor complaint is the implication that Gotham is in the South (mentioned in a one-off comment). It's not. Otherwise, they captured the feel of Gotham nicely, and of Batman near-perfectly.

*Yes, three -- unless your tongue is stuck three inches up Tim Burton's ass, it's hard to ignore the fact that Batman Returns is just a pair of plastic nipples and a good Michelle Pfeiffer performance away from sucking as much as Schumacher's movies.

JMS emailed the new LitG column with his take on the V script and the reactions of the AICN crowd. Well worth reading (a rarity for JMS these days). Some good points about what makes a good screenplay, and how easy it is to poke fun at almost any concept.